The Middle East Christian News Agency (MCN) was launched on Sunday in Arabic and English to be the first agency to focus primarily on news relating to the Christians of the Middle East.
In a statement, the agency said that it would broadcast electronically in Arabic on www.mcnarabic.com to serve local and regional media, and on www.mcndirect.com in English to serve the international media.
The new agency also aims to provide government and non-governmental institutions, especially those working with human rights in Egypt, the Middle East and the world, with news material that fills the void for the citizens of the Middle East that resulted from local and international media ignoring that kind of news, as the statement put it.
“The local media, which is manipulated by the regimes of the region, normally avoid covering the news of the Copts and the Christians, or at least color it according to the whims of those regimes, with very few exceptions, while the international media focuses only on regional conflicts,” the statement said.
It added that MCN is an independent agency that is not linked to any religious, secular, local, regional or international body, and thus would depend on subscriptions in providing its specialized service.
The agency is headed by prominent media personality William Wissa, former head of the Arabic section of Radio France, and founder and chief editor of the Arabic section of Euro News.
